Today Haldeman LLC lodged a private criminal prosecution against former employee Mia Nelson. Lodged in the Nelson District Court, Haldeman LLC claims Mia Nelson falsified her resume and in doing so committed an offense under sections 240 and 241 of the Crimes Act 1961. Haldeman LLC recently engaged a private investigator in Washington state, USA who obtained a sworn affidavit from Mia Nelson’s claimed former employer John Casablancas Career Center. This affidavit states:

“1. Mia Nelson was never employed with John Casabalancas Career Center
2. The search that we had done for Mia Nelson included looking through our Employee Book, which has all of our past to present employees. We found no records under the name of Mia Nelson; not in 2010 nor in the past years of 2000”

Haldeman LLC is currently awaiting the court to issue Mia Nelson a summons. The initial hearing has been provisionally scheduled for 1 May 2013.

In 2002, John Davy was sentenced to eight months imprisonment after the Auckland District Court found that he had lied about his qualifications when securing a job at the Maori Television Service.

In 2010, Mary Anne Thompson, the former head of the NZ Immigration Service admitted to the Wellington District Court that she had fraudulently used her resume to secure the role. She was fined $10,000 and sentenced to 100 hours community service.

The Employment Relations Authority believes that being dismissed for bringing Nazi views into the workplace and for allegedly falsifying a resume is worth a payout in excess of $35,000.

This decision is a disgrace. Mia Nelson was dismissed for bringing Nazi views into the workplace. She admitted creating a hitler email address during work time, and using language such as “ilovehitler”.

Haldeman LLC believes using Nazi language such as “ilovehitler” and accessing a Nazi themed website in the office is atrocious and gross misconduct. The Employment Relations Authority disagrees.

Mia Nelson also allegedly admitted she falsified her resume to senior management but later denied this occurred. However when challenged on multiple occasions to produce evidence to support the claims made on her resume, she refused to co-operate. To this date, she has not been able to prove any of the previous employment claimed on her resume.

Haldeman LLC believes that staff who have allegedly admitted to falsifying their resumes, and then refuse to co-operate with an investigation meeting to address the matter, have committed gross misconduct. The Employment Relations Authority disagrees and believes Mia Nelson’s simple denial rather than considering hard evidence.

The ERA also rules on the allegation that Mia Nelson falsified her resume that “Ms Nelson did refuse to allow the respondent [Haldeman LLC] to carry out a background check on her, but she gave an explanation for which that I found credible.” This explanation, detailed on page 14 of the decision is that Ms Nelson declined to do this background check “because a background check in the USA would just investigate whether she had a criminal history and would not have been about her jobs.”

However the email Mia Nelson was sent placing her on suspension (and which the ERA was provided a copy of) states:
“To assist with this investigation you can provide references or accompanying documentation to confirm the previous employment and credentials you claimed in your resume. Alternatively the other option is for you to sign a disclosure permitting us have an independent company provide a background check in the US to confirm the veracity of your resume.”

This email never mentioned a criminal check. It is curious Ms Nelson appeared so fearful of a resume or indeed criminal background check being completed.

Haldeman LLC will be appealing this decision in the Employment Court.

Mia Nelson is already facing upcoming legal action taken by Haldeman LLC in the Nelson High Court in case CIV 2012/442/476 along with her partner and former Haldeman LLC employee Joshua Dean, who are being sued for breaches of the Fair Training Act. Injurious Falsehoods and Defamation respectively, for damages in the region of $860,000.

Joshua Dean, now of Invercargill was previously employed by Haldeman LLC. The company is seeking damages from Mr Dean for injury to reputation, special damages for loss of earnings in the region of $100,000 and exemplary damages of $10,000.

Haldeman LLC is also seeking damages from former employee Mia Nelson in relation to two causes of action, one of which involving Ms Nelson bringing reviled Nazi views into the workplace. Additionally the company is seeking damages for injury to the business and personal reputations of the plaintiffs in the region of $200,000, along with special and exemplary damages.

In relation to a further cause of action, the proprietor of Haldeman LLC is seeking a declaration from the court that words allegedly published by Mia Nelson are false and defamatory, along with general damages in the sum of $500,000 for injury to reputation, exemplary damages of $25,000, along with full costs incidental to the proceedings.

Haldeman LLC also claims that the three defendants made misleading or deceptive representations, or representations that were likely to mislead or deceive in breach of section 9 of the Fair Trading Act 1986, in relation to the activities of Jobit Ltd, a company of which Mr Josh Dean is Director.

In October 2011 Haldeman LLC filed defamation proceedings in the Supreme Court of Western Australia against Seven Network, operators of Channel 7, for untrue statements broadcast on the Sunrise program on 15 September 2011 and published on the Yahoo7! website. A copy of the writ of summons issued on 5 October 2011 is available here. Haldeman LLC and Seven Network have today reached a confidential out of court settlement and this matter is now finalised.

On 15 September 2011, Bob Melling, Principal Compliance Officer from the Queensland Office of Fair Trading made a public statement about Mining Australia. The statement confirmed that Mining Australia is operating legally and is in compliance with Australia’s Fair Trading legislation.

The untrue and defamatory statements broadcast by Seven Network caused considerable damage to the company’s reputation, however the defamatory material was fairly promptly removed from the Yahoo7! website. Haldeman LLC can only surmise that this retraction occurred because Mr Melling had confirmed our work to be in accordance with Fair Trading legislation, and by extension that the attacks by Seven Network were unwarranted. In addition to making several general statements about employment type websites, Mr Melling had this to specifically say about Mining Australia at www.australia-mining.com:

“There is a fine line between promising and guaranteeing somebody a job and actually just providing information and [Mining Australia] is on that side where they don’t actually promise or guarantee a job”

This statement of course acknowledges what is made entirely clear in the first paragraph on the the Mining Australia homepage – namely “We have extensive experience helping people get into the Australia mining industry. But in saying that we are not a quick fix. It is not possible to guarantee employment, however if you follow our comprehensive recommendations and advice, you will maximise your employment prospects”.

On 15 September 2011, Channel 7 broadcast a series of defamatory statements about our services on their Sunrise program. During this program segment, the presenter made a series of defamatory statements about our www.australia-mining.com website. These false allegations caused serious damage to the reputation of Haldeman LLC.

On 16 September 2011, Haldeman LLC instructed our Perth lawyers to initiate defamation action against the Seven Network for the defamatory material broadcast and published on the Yahoo7! website. Additionally, Haldeman LLC demanded that Channel Seven retract all allegations publicly and remove the program segment from the Yahoo7! website.

While Seven Network promptly removed all defamatory material from the Yahoo7! website, they did not publicly retract their previous statements as requested. On 5 October 2011 defamation proceedings were filed in the Supreme Court of Western Australia against Seven Network. In the Writ of Summons available here, Haldeman LLC is claiming for, “damages for defamation, including damages together with interest on such damages from 15 September 2011,” including costs. Litigation is ongoing against Seven Network.